“Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!” The first reading from Ecclesiastes warns that the pursuit of things consumes the fool. Lost in the consumption is our soul. Jesus tells a parable of a soul so foolishly consumed, “A rich man, whose land produced a bountiful harvest” ponders, ‘What shall I do?’ ‘I shall build larger barns.’” With “so many good things stored up for years, (I shall) eat, drink, be merry.” “But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’”
Ahh, the things that consume us and the cost to us to be so consumed. The cost is not only money but loved ones and indeed our very self; our soul. The concern is that people being foolishly consumed by lesser things is getting worse. It is the concern of Stuart Ewen ever since his 1971 ground breaking book Captains of Consciousness. Ewen is a Professor of Film & Media Studies, and, like Ecclesiastes and Jesus, is concerned about capitalism’s consumption of our soul. Ewan speaks of capitalism having colonized the American identity. It begins with reconnaissance, then invasion, onto occupation, and finally assimilation. The four stages sound like a military operation because that’s how capitalist titans colonized the American identity. 1) The reconnaissance began with Wall Street millionaires crafting WWI for greater plunder (J.P. Morgan). They started to buy men for their advertising ranks to coerce men they wanted to buy for their military ranks. The admen formed the ‘Public Relations’ (PR) division of capitalism. Their reconnoitering intel identified that branding U.S. dissenters from WWI as cowards would increase men getting recruited and the capitalists getting plunder. 2) The warrior PR division then invaded the American mind so that compliant citizens would invade the European continent. PR’s invasion relied on two weapons, propaganda and censorship – bias favoring the warrior was coupled with silencing the dissenters. Many citizens consumed the bullet points and went to war. 3) The transition from invasion to occupation of the American mind happened after WWI. The capitalist war plunderers turned their two weapons of propaganda and censorship on the American people, full force. Propaganda meant that not only did Captains of Consciousness, aka capitalists, sell business products, even an image, a lifestyle – they sold capitalism. Capitalism was sold as a savior. Capitalism saves us from bad breath, bad fashion, even bad values – bad for capitalism. Censorship meant that Capitalists silenced wisdom; wisdom to discern simplicity, healthy living, the integrity of nature, and world peace. Capitalists occupied the American mind with ‘things.’ They seduced people, even children, into buying their things. Consumerism occupies our mind as we believe, ‘You are what you buy.’ 4) Capitalists’ occupation transitioned to assimilation when they started to identify human beings as things, ‘consumers.’ Capitalists assimilated the compliant American who consumed their assigned identity. We are objects for capitalists to consume and excrete as just so much waste. Capitalists consume us for their plunder. Victory in the war on humanity could be claimed. People are things, while things, like corporations, are people. Thus, our jobs can be eliminated, while the stock market is heralded. Unlivable wages can be maintained while tax cuts are granted to the 1%. Will we fight and die for the American way because we identify with the capitalists who have colonized us – while they refuse to identity with Jesus and his wisdom from today’s Gospel, “Take care to guard against all greed”? Shall we instead be wise people in touch with our soul?
“I CELEBRATE myself; … For every atom belonging to me, as good, belongs to you… I and this mystery, here we stand. Clear and sweet is my Soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not my Soul. … Dazzling and tremendous, how quick the sun-rise would kill me, If I could not now and always send sun-rise out of me. We also ascend, dazzling and tremendous as the sun; We found our own, O my Soul.” (Song of Myself – Walt Whitman)
Prayer: Spirit, raise our soul consciousness
Question: How do I starve consumerism and feed my soul?
August 04, 2019 Gospel Luke 12:13-21 Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time